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Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Coffee County Man Sentenced to Serve 24 Years for Possession of a Firearm by a Felon

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – On Sept. 15, 2014, Victor Stitt, 32, of
Manchester, Tenn., was sentenced to serve 290 months in prison by the Honorable
Harry S. Mattice Jr., U.S. District Judge. The sentence was the result of a
conviction after a jury trial in April 2014.

During trial, the jury learned that Coffee County Sheriff’s
Deputies responded to a domestic violence assault call at the residence of
Stitt’s then girlfriend, after receiving information that he had assaulted her
and threatened her with a handgun. He had left the scene before the deputies
arrived, but was subsequently located at his family’s house in Cannon County,
Tenn. At that time, Stitt was within arm’s reach of a handgun.

Stitt’s lengthy sentence was a result of his classification
as an armed career criminal, which was based his nine prior convictions for
aggravated burglary. As a result, he faced a mandatory sentence of at least 15
years in prison.

The indictment and subsequent conviction of Stitt was the
result of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms, and Explosives, and Coffee County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S.
Attorneys Terra L. Bay and Meredith J. Edwards represented the United States at
trial.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods
(PSN), a comprehensive national strategy that creates local partnerships with
law enforcement agencies to effectively enforce existing gun laws. It provides
more options to prosecutors, allowing them to utilize local, state, and federal
laws to ensure that criminals who commit gun crime face tough sentences. PSN
gives each federal district the flexibility it needs to focus on individual
challenges that a specific community faces.